Trail Of Tears Long Term Effects

The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to a piece of land that was designated as Native Territory. In 1803 the Indian Removal Act was passed leading to the removal of the Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Seminoles, and Cherokees were relocated off their land. The trek was over 1,000 miles long and thousands of people died while being transported. Before the Indian Removal Act, the tribes were thriving in the southeastern United States. White americans saw American Indians as unfamiliar, alien people, causing them to try to “civilize” them by trying to make them as much like white americans as possible. Native Americans were encouraged …show more content…
The trek was over 1,000 miles long and the majority of them had to travel on foot. This removal is now viewed as one of the most tragic episodes in American history. Native Americans were forced to leave their homes, livestock crops, and places that had spiritual significance to them and move west of the Mississippi River and adapt to their new life there. The main long term effect of the Trail of Tears was that there was a lack of trust between the tribes and the United States government. After the Trail of Tears the Native American population started to whittle down from all the death and disease that they went through on the trek. The Trail of Tears was a very hard time for Native Americans from having to leave their homes, crops, livestock, and places that help spiritual significance to them and the amount of death that happened. The Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Seminoles, and Cherokees had to experience all of this because the government wanted the territory that they were originally inhabiting. They had to adjust to completely new territory and had to build a completely new life for themselves which isn’t easy to